Liefmans Frambozenbier

My 100th rating! Exciting only for me, perhaps. This brew pours ruby-amber, with slight pink tinge to head. Quasi-lambic fruitiness, but with sour replacing sweet. The fruit mellows after first few sips. I’ll try this one again.

On tap at Out of the Vaults (RB Leicester pub crawl). This is one of Dan Brown’s faves, so we had to have this. Although I was initially sceptical, I was eventually won round. It’s intensely fruity and noticeably sour. I still think that, although the brewery asserts that there are no syrups involved, the fruit still manages to come over to me as slightly artificial. Overall, though, quite nice.

(Bottle) Pours a murky brown with some reddish highlights and a thin white head. Sweet, berry aroma. Tart flavor with a smooth finish.

01.09.05 355ml bottle, paper wrapped. Hazed amber, the color of southern sweet tea, faint tan head. Aromas of raspberry, fresh berries slightly bruised. A surprisingly fresh aroma that captures the tartness of the real fruit. Flavors are at first a bit bland up front with a gradually growing presence of more fresh berry. Eventually, as the flavors fill the palate, I am reminded of a whole grain biscuit with a smear of homemade berry jam. At no point do the fruit flavors get intrusive or artificial and the underlying sour beer is very nice. Good stuff.

(Bottled, 4.5% ABV, 0.375l) Hazy, dark amber color with a smallish, beige head. A pleasant, sourish and slightly sweet raspberry aroma. Semi-dry, quite natural raspberry flavor with a sweetish, sticky finish. Medium-bodied, softly sour, slightly sugary palate with balanced carbonation. Would probably be better without raspberries, but as a fruit beer, this is certainly a very pleasant one.

Bottle. Nice raspberry aroma and flavour. Red, small white head. Nice soft drink.

On tap at o’briens.---Pours a deep brown/auburn hue with a small off-white head. I could smell the amazing aromas of raspberries from 3 feet away. It’s amazing. Raspberry Jam...Raspberry tarts.... Fresh Raspberries!!!!! Flavors of ummmm..,....I am not sure.....RASPBERRY JUICE with a slight yeasty tinge to it with an juice bitterness..

(Draft: O’Brien’s in San Diego, CA) Big sweet tart raspberry nose. Big sweet tart raspberry flavor. That pretty much covers it! Only mildly sweet. Champagne-like carbonation with a somewhat sweet palate, but the tartness keeps it from becoming the least bit cloying. My only real complaint is the palate is a wee bit watery. The color is brownish-plum brick color and fairly opaque. Very small off-white head on the pour fades to a sheen quickly, and leaves no lace. Nice, clean, tart fruit beer that’s easy to drink.